Candidates have until 5 p.m. August 9, 2003 to file papers with the supporting signatures of 65 registered voters and pay a $3,500 filing fee. Elections officials have until Aug. 13 to verify signatures and announce which candidates have qualified.

Question instructing voters to choose a successor to Gray Davis in case Question 1 passes. Gray Davis is not an eligible candidate.

One legacy of early 20th century political reformer Hiram Johnson is the recall election.

In a recall, voters decide whether to throw out an elected official. It's been tried 118 times in 90 years against state officials. It has succeeded exactly four times - two of them in the 1990s in Orange County, when Assembly members Paul Horcher and Doris Allen were tossed from office in the wake of a fight over the speakership.

Democratic Gov. Culbert Olson faced five recall drives, including three his first year in office, and the ugly campaigns helped seal his 1942 defeat at the hands of Earl Warren.

Gov. Gray Davis is the latest target. If past is prologue, this attempt will go nowhere. But Davis, burdened with negatives, is seen as vulnerable, and even a failed recall would roil California's political landscape.

Candidates have until 5 p.m. August 9, 2003 to file papers with the supporting signatures of 65 registered voters and pay a $3,500 filing fee. Elections officials have until Aug. 13 to verify signatures and announce which candidates have qualified.

Question instructing voters to choose a successor to Gray Davis in case Question 1 passes. Gray Davis is not an eligible candidate.

One legacy of early 20th century political reformer Hiram Johnson is the recall election.

In a recall, voters decide whether to throw out an elected official. It's been tried 118 times in 90 years against state officials. It has succeeded exactly four times - two of them in the 1990s in Orange County, when Assembly members Paul Horcher and Doris Allen were tossed from office in the wake of a fight over the speakership.

Democratic Gov. Culbert Olson faced five recall drives, including three his first year in office, and the ugly campaigns helped seal his 1942 defeat at the hands of Earl Warren.

Gov. Gray Davis is the latest target. If past is prologue, this attempt will go nowhere. But Davis, burdened with negatives, is seen as vulnerable, and even a failed recall would roil California's political landscape.